| J. C. Squire, ed. A Book of Women’s Verse. 1921. | | | | On the Sight of a Skull | | By Mary Mollineux (c. 1648–1695) |
| | | BEHOLD, ambitious lump of clay refined, | |
| Thy epilogue; see, see to what design’d! | |
| So soon as thou wert born, so soon as air | |
| Affords thee breath, thy vitals to repair, | |
| So soon as thy small feeble embrion breast | 5 |
| Is of an active power, unknown, possess’d; | |
| So soon thou may’st expect the dreadful day, | |
| When thou once more must be reduc’d to clay, | |
| And the whole fabrick of thy body must | |
| Again be brought to its first nothing, dust: | 10 |
| Then shall those eyes, those crystal eyes of thine, | |
| Which now like sparkling diamonds do shine, | |
| Their little chambers circular forsake, | |
| And them to essence more obscure betake; | |
| The tender funnel of thy nose must thence | 15 |
| Corroded be, and lose its smelling Sense; | |
| And all the volume of thy face will be | |
| So chang’d, none may thereby remember thee. | | | | |
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